Amos A. Lawrence to Govenor Charles L. Robinson: July 24, 1858

July 24, 1858.

I am under the harrow again in regard to politics, and do not see any way of escape. If put up to run against Mr. Banks, I shall be beaten soundly. If for Congress, I might be successful; but it would be like cutting off my right hand to leave my wife and seven children (one recently), my business and all, to go to Washington. Without any desire to shirk the responsibility which every good citizen ought to be willing to assume, I am distressed beyond measure. If it were not for making myself ridiculous I would join the red-hot Republicans (who have many candidates) and so get rid of the difficulty.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 143-4

E. Rockford Hoar to Amos A. Lawrence, September 13, 1860

Concord, September 13, 1860.

My Dear Amos, — Considering, as you say, the state of the weather, the news from Maine, and the prospects of your party, I admire your pluck.

I hope you will, some time or other before you die, belong to some respectable organization, having some definite principles, so that I can vote for you.

In the mean time, I congratulate your little squad on having a candidate who is neither “for sale or to let.”

Very truly yours,

E. R. Hoar.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 145-6

Daniel Webster to Justice Joseph Story, January 14, 1822

Washington, January 14, 1822.

My Dear Sir,—I am much obliged to you for yours of the 8th, which I have just received. I came on very safe and sound, and am lodged comfortably, but not on the Capitol Hill; which, for some reasons, I regret. I learn that somebody has made provision for the court at, or near, the old spot. I will, however, speak to Mr. Caldwell.

There is much stir and buzz about Presidential candidates here. Mr. Clay's friends are certainly numerous: whether it be because his is the most recent nomination, or for what other reason, the fact is he is just now much talked about. I think it will be a busy winter, in talking and electioneering. My own opinion is, but I would not intimate it to others, that Mr. Clay considers himself a candidate, and means to run the race. More hereafter on these subjects.

Mr. Hopkinson desired me to beseech you to give him a day, as you come on. I promised him to write you, and mention his request. He wishes much to see you, and to give some of his friends that .pleasure. If, on your arrival, you contrive to send him notice, to No. 196, Chestnut street, he will esteem it a great favor.

I am glad your opinion is coming out It is much asked for.

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky, has to-day, I learn, made a long speech in favor of his proposed amendment. He has dealt, they say, pretty freely with the supreme court. Dartmouth College, Sturgis and Crowninshield, et cetera, have all been demolished. To-morrow he is to pull to pieces the case of the Kentucky betterment law. Then Governor Barber is to annihilate Cohens v. Virginia. So things go; but I see less reality in all this smoke than I thought I should, before I came here.

I hope you will call and see my wife, and my boys, what few there are of them; not forgetting Miss Julia.

Give my love to Mrs. Story, and believe me, most truly

Yours,

D. Webster.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Volume 1, p. 319-20

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to a Friend, September 16, 1856

Nebraska City, September 16,1856

I know you will particularly like a word from the Border. . . . Various camping grounds are scattered along from twenty-five miles north to the same distance south, of various parties, and in a day or two more it will be “Boot, saddle, to horse, and away,” as Browning has it. Only just at this moment things look discouragingly safe, and the men are beginning to fear marching in without a decent excuse for firing anything at anybody. But we shall take in arms and ammunition and flour and groceries and specie, and shall be welcomed even if we go through safe. As one approaches Kansas, it becomes more and more the absorbing topic and every one here talks it all day, while waiting for real estate to rise. Then comes a cloud of dust on the western road and two or three horsemen come riding wearily in, bearded and booted and spurred and red-shirted, sword and pistol by their side — only the sword is a bowie-knife — wild, manly-looking riders, and they are the latest from Kansas and we get them quickly into a private room to hear the news — how the road is peaceful just now, and they need flour and lead woefully at Lawrence, and how four hundred men chased seven hundred.

. . . The wells are nearly dry, though I can't conceive that enough has ever been drawn from them to produce the effect, and the dirtiest thing in the landscape is the river. . . . The most discouraging thing I have heard for liberty in Kansas is that the Kansas River is just like the Missouri.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 140-1

Joseph Choate to George L. Stearns, probably about late July 1863

This last calamity to the house and family of Mrs. Gibbons (the sacking of her home by the recent riot) presents a fit opportunity for her friends and those of her children to bear a testimony to the esteem in which they hold her. We propose, therefore, to give her a benefit.

Mrs. G., as you know, has spent her whole life in unrewarded devotion to that same wretched class of people who have now so ruthlessly destroyed her home, and she has spent twelve months of the last sixteen at her own expense in nursing our sick and wounded in the hospitals, utterly regardless of her own interests, and now she returns to find her home a desert, and literally has hardly where to lay her head. It is high time, therefore, for her friends to show her that her good works have not been all in vain. Besides, I know that unless something of the kind is done, the family will actually suffer from the recent loss.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 299

Samuel Gridley Howe to Senator Charles Sumner, July 4, 1852

Boston, July 4th, 1852.

Dearest Sumner: — I got your note yesterday, and read most of it to Carter;¹ afterwards I sent it to Parker, to be used with care. I have done what I could in a quiet way to inspire others with the confidence I feel in the final success of your plan. I received this morning a note from Parker (written of course before I sent yours) which I think it best to send you. A wise man likes to know how the wind blows, though he may have determined not to vary his course, even for a tempest. I wrote to Parker saying that he was lacking faith, and I feared beginning to lack charity — things in which he had abounded towards you.

I think the crying sin, and the great disturbing force in the path of our politicians is approbativeness; they let public opinion be to them in lieu of a conscience. So will not you do.

I want you to raise your voice and enter your protest, not because it is for your interest to do so, but for the sake of the cause, and of the good it will surely do. The present is yours, the future may not be; you may never go back to Washington even should you be spared in life and health. Again, it may be imprudent to wait till the last opportunity, for when that comes you may be prostrated by illness. Mann made a remark in one of his late letters about you, which I think I have more than once made to you, viz: that you yield obedience to all God's laws of morality, but think you are exempt from any obligation to obey his laws of physiology. You will have a breakdown some time that will make you realize that to ruin the mental powers by destroying that on which they depend is about as bad as neglecting to cultivate them.

However, what I mean to say is this: that though you would not heed all the world's urging you to speak if you thought it your duty to be silent, yet believing with all your friends that you ought to speak, you must not vista everything, in the hope of doing so at a particular moment, when you may be disabled by sickness.

Downer said to-day: “I don't see how it is to be, yet I have great faith that Sumner will come off with flying colours.” He would say so, even if you were prevented from speaking at all this session, and so should I, but so would few others.

Julia has returned and is well; so are all my beautiful and dear children. We go to Newport next Monday to stay awhile in the house with Longfellow, Appleton, etc.² No news here. Daniel [Webster] is determined to show fight; he has much blood, and it is very black. . . .

S. G. H.

_______________

¹ Robert Carter

² At Cliff House. The party consisted of my father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Longfellow and their children, George William Curtis, Thomas G. Appleton, and two or three others.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 382-3

In The Review Queue: Appealing for Liberty

Appealing for Liberty:

Freedom Suits in the South

By Loren Schweninger

Dred Scott and his landmark Supreme Court case are ingrained in the national memory, but he was just one of multitudes who appealed for their freedom in courtrooms across the country. Appealing for Liberty is the most comprehensive study to give voice to these African Americans, drawing from more than 2,000 suits and from the testimony of more than 4,000 plaintiffs from the Revolutionary era to the Civil War. Through the petitions, evidence, and testimony introduced in these court proceedings, the lives of the enslaved come sharply and poignantly into focus, as do many other aspects of southern society such as the efforts to preserve and re-unite black families. This book depicts in graphic terms, the pain, suffering, fears, and trepidations of the plaintiffs while discussing the legal systemlawyers, judges, juries, and testimonythat made judgments on their "causes," as the suits were often called.

Arguments for freedom were diverse: slaves brought suits claiming they had been freed in wills and deeds, were born of free mothers, were descendants of free white women or Indian women; they charged that they were illegally imported to some states or were residents of the free states and territories. Those who testified on their behalf, usually against leaders of their communities, were generally white. So too were the lawyers who took these cases, many of them men of prominence, such as Francis Scott Key. More often than not, these men were slave owners themselves-- complicating our understanding of race relations in the antebellum period.

A majority of the cases examined here were not appealed, nor did they create important judicial precedent. Indeed, most of the cases ended at the county, circuit, or district court level of various southern states. Yet the narratives of both those who gained their freedom and those who failed to do so, and the issues their suits raised, shed a bold and timely light on the history of race and liberty in the "land of the free."

About the Author

Loren Schweninger is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where he taught for forty years. He was Director of the Race and Slavery Petitions Project from 1991-2009, creating the Digital Library on American Slavery during his tenure, and is the author of numerous books, including the Lincoln-Prize winning Runaway Slaves: Rebels in the Plantations (2010), co-authored with John Hope Franklin.

ISBN 978-0190664282, Oxford University Press, © 2018, Hardcover, 440 pages, Illustrations, Tables, Genealogy of the Boston Slave Family ca.1686-1798, Appendix, Selected Bibliography, End Notes & Index. $39.95.  To purchase this book click HERE.

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 12, 1860

Seminary, Jan. 12.

. . . I have allowed more time than usual to pass without writing. Indeed I have had a good many calls upon my time not properly belonging to me. The steward was sick of sore throat that made it imprudent of him to come so I had to supervise his mess affairs. I had a parcel of lazy negroes scrubbing and cleaning, and lastly new cadets arriving and receiving their outfits. I have to do everything but teach. We have now forty cadets all at work reciting in mathematics, French, and Latin, also drilling once a day. I drill one squad, but as soon as I get a few of the best far enough advanced to help I will simply overlook. Hereafter I will have none of this to do.

Everything moves along satisfactorily, all seem pleased, and gentlemen have been here from New Orleans and other distant points who are much pleased. I have knowledge of more cadets coming, and this being the first term and being preceded by so much doubt I don't know that we have reason to be disappointed with only forty. The legislature meets next Monday, and then will begin the free discussion which will settle the fact of professors' houses and other little detailed improvements which will go far to make my position here comfortable or otherwise.

Nobody has said boo about John. Indeed I have two letters from John which I showed to General Graham who gave them to the senator from this Parish, who took them to Baton Rouge. In them John tells me he signed the Helper card without seeing it, not knowing it, but after Clark¹ introduced his resolution he would make no disclaimer. He was right, and all men acquainted with the facts will say so. Even southern men. The supervisors can't spare me. I manage their affairs to their perfect satisfaction, and all here in the parish would never think of complicating me. But the legislature may – we shall soon see. . .

_______________

¹ John B. Clark, a member of Congress from Missouri, introduced a resolution to the effect that no person who endorsed Helper's book was fit to be speaker of the House of Representatives. —  Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 117-8

Diary of Amos Bronson Alcott: December 2, 1859

Ellen Emerson sends me her fair copy of the Martyr Service. At 2 P. M. we meet at the Town Hall, our own townspeople present mostly, and many from the adjoining towns. Simon Brown is chairman; the readings are by Thoreau, Emerson, C. Bowers, and Alcott; and Sanborn's “Dirge” is sung by the company standing. The bells are not rung. I think not more than one or two of Brown's friends wished them to be; I did not. It was more fitting to signify our sorrow in the subdued way, and silently, than by any clamor of steeples or the awakening of angry feelings or any conflict, as needless as unamiable, between neighbors. The services are affecting and impressive, distinguished by modesty, simplicity, and earnestness, — worthy alike of the occasion and of the man.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 629-30

Thomas Garrett to William Still, November 6, 1856

WILMINGTON, 11th mo., 6th, 1856.

RESPECTED FRIEND: — WILLIAM STILL: — Thine of yesterday, came to hand this morning, advising me to forward those four men to thee, which I propose to send from here in the steam boat, at two o’clock, P. M. to day to thy care; one of them thinks he has a. brother and cousin in New Bedford, and is anxious to get to them, the others thee can do what thee thinks best with, after consulting with them, we have rigged them up pretty comfortably with clothes, and I have paid for their passage to Philadelphia, and also for the passage of their pilot there and back; he proposed to ask thee for three dollars, for the three days time he lost with them, but that we will raise here for him, as one of them expects to have some money brought from Carolina soon, that belongs to him, and wants thee when they are fixed, to let me know so that I may forward it to them. I will give each of them a card of our firm. Hoping they may get along safe, I remain as ever, thy sincere friend,

THOS.. GARRETT.

SOURCE: William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters &c., p. 380

George S. Denison to Salmon P. Chase, January 15, 1863

(Private)

New Orleans, January 15th, 1863.

Dear Sir: A fight is progressing on Bayou Teche. Gen. Weitzel commands. He crossed Berwick's Bay yesterday morning, and has advanced up the Teche as far as the enemy's fortifications. The enemy have 1,100 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Weitzel will succeed without doubt, and advance to New Iberia, where fortifications will be erected by us. The rebel salt works near New Iberia, are yielding one million pounds per day. It is carried all over the Southern States. If this movement is successful, these works will be destroyed. The Teche country is full of sugar. This present movement is simply carrying out Gen. Butler's plan of operations. I urged it a week ago, but advised a flank movement. Gen. Banks has thought best to attack in front. I have traveled through that country several times, and know it well.

The U. S. armed Transport, “Hatteras”, was sunk by the “Alabama” on Sunday the 11th inst. The fight lasted about 45 minutes, and occurred sixteen miles from Galveston. The Flag officer there sent the “Hatteras” out to overhaul a strange sail — which proved to be the “Alabama”, and proved too powerful for her antagonist. Six men of the “Hatteras” escaped in a boat — the rest of the crew were killed or captured. The “Hatteras” carried ninety men. The “Brooklyn” and other vessels lying off Galveston, immediately started for the “Alabama”, but could find nothing of her. The rebels have not attempted to come out of Galveston Bay with the “Harriet Lane”. She is still lying in the Harbor, and I do not know why our Gunboats do not go in and destroy her.

Major Gen. Augur has at last been sent to Baton Rouge to take command, and organize the force there. There begins to be exhibited in this department some little energy and activity. All that is now done, ought to have been done four weeks ago.

The business of “Special Agent” under regulations of August 28th, is not now interfered with by military authorities. In consequence of this non-interference I have organized it with great success. I am satisfied that nothing, or very little, reaches the enemy from this port—and the planters within our lines are supplying themselves rapidly with whatever they need for their own use. I supervise everything myself and have an immense amount of labor to perform. I hear that large amounts of merchandise and supplies reach the enemy from Memphis and vicinity. This can be avoided by honestly adopting the right plan. Trade must be centralized and none allowed except at one or few points. I prevent it as far as possible, outside of the city, and can therefore control it. This plan is well adapted to this country, because property real and personal, is in the hands of a few planters. It is easy (and has been customary heretofore) for each planter to come to the City — take the proper oaths and be made individually responsible for whatever he wishes to take out of the City. Every boat going up the river, carries an “Aid to the Revenue” who sees that the supplies are delivered only at the proper plantation. I have to employ many additional “aids”, but make the system pay its own expenses. My personal supervision of all the details is an immense labor, but I know it will be well done if I attend to it myself — otherwise not.

The planters within and without our lines have been afraid to bring their crops of sugar and cotton because it was seized and must pass through the hands of the military commission. Gen. Butler's military commission was a dishonest plundering concern. By the enclosed order of Gen. Banks, you will see that planters are invited to bring their crops to the City and promised protection. It will have a good and marked effect. This order will not interfere with my action as “Special Agent.”

The system of furnishing supplies to planters — adopted by me, gives satisfaction to planters — but dissatisfaction to the great number of Jews, military speculators, and men from the North, who expect to swindle planters out of fortunes.

It is known here that the President has issued his proclamation, but its terms are not fully known. Gen. Banks told me this morning he is going to raise negro troops, but I fear, not in large numbers. I have information that the number of rebel troops in Texas is about 9,000 — of whom one-third are cavalry. They are provided with good arms brought through Mexico. About one-third of them are conscripts.

The number of troops in Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, is about 4,500 — nearly all of whom are in the Teche country.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 348-50

John M. Forbes & William H. Aspinwall to Salmon P. Chase, May 29, 1863

Paris, May 29,1865.

. . . We have been made aware, by the debates in Parliament and otherwise, that there is no public prosecutor in England, even for the most dangerous crimes against society, and consequently no officer whose business it is, upon reasonable suspicion, to protect us against the infraction of their foreign enlistment act. . . .

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 2, p. 45

Commandant Samuel F. DuPont to Gustavus V. Fox, January 4, 1862

Confidential.

Port Royal, Jany. 4, 62.

My Dear Sir

The Vanderbilt played us a scurvy trick yesterday, having gone off without our mail, paid no attention to a gun from this ship, nor to a Tug which followed her out to the bar making signals all the time. Whether it was accident or design for a particular purpose — I cannot say.

The Oriental takes to-day the official reports of a clever joint Expedition, well conducted on both sides, in which the gun boats have been signally successful and drawing as much admiration from the troops engaged, as the whole fleet did on the day of the capture of the Forts.

The getting of them up the Port Royal or Beaufort River and then into the Coosaw (our Potomac) but thoroughly swept now, was a great feat, like the Spaniards over the dykes in Holland. Of course they often grounded, but they care no more for this than putting a mud flat on the beach. With light anchors hanging from the bowsprit and the armed boats from this ship they were even turned in their length — it having been asserted they would not be able to do this in either of the rivers. The truth is, wherever Raymond Rodgers is, things are sure to go right — he possesses more enterprise with care and forethought combined than I have met with before. Gen. Stevens has sent me a handsome letter in reference to the cooperation, semi-official. Our howitzers under Irwin composed their only field artillery. This army code of signals is very superior, Rodgers and Stevens kept up the most perfect communication. The general impression is that the rebels did not come up to the mark, after a great deal of taunting and invitation heretofore for our troops to “dare come” on the fort land, and leave the islands. Our shell did immense execution. A Colonel out with the skirmishers could see them burst among the rebel troops within the line of works—four men literally torn in fragments were killed by the bursting of one. Stevens thinks Evans was in command — the Leesburg man.

Now My Dear friend a little business. In order to carry out the above Expedition which has raised very much the morale of our troops, and in spite of themselves giving them a still higher opinion of us, I had to withdraw Ammen from Edisto, leaving Budd shaking in his boots lest the Charleston Navy come down upon him. The Ottawa had to come up from Tybee leaving Drayton with a lame duck the Wyandotte, and the old Vandalia, with heavy fire rafts building up the river. A three hundred feet one having been cut adrift by a loyal man from under Pulaski, was caught in Tybee and gave us excellent timber. The Pembina had to be taken from old Gillis threatened by the Georgia Navy in Wassaw, the 'Andrew' being disabled in her rudder. The blockading ships are getting out of coal and how I can relieve them I can hardly tell. Now, most important operations are pending between the Comdg General and myself based on naval and army reconnaissances and contraband knowledge, of communications from Wassaw inlet into the Savannah River, also into the latter, through the islands on its northern or left bank, such as Venus and Elba—allowing Pulaski to be cut off from all supplies, a vastly better plan than a regular approach with mortars, which will cost a half million of dollars. I send a report from Captain Gilmore and wish I had John Rodgers' sent up last night from Wassaw (another man worth his weight in Gold) and you would then have some insight into our plans. We can debouche into the Savannah river between Pulaski and Jackson, rather near the latter, and hold the river there against Tattnall while the troops are occupying Elba and fortifying it. On the mainland there is hard ground enough for Sherman to move on the city, but he must have cavalry; he can get there by boats through the inland waters and is now drawing up piles from Wall's Cut, sunk after the fight here and a hulk sunk besides. Now I don't want to press you — but I am spread to my utmost capacity and if you cannot send me more of the regular Gunboats and particularly one or two of the new side wheel ones, (one of them to be given to John Rodgers) why I must wait — because you are the judge and not me where they are most wanted. I won't growl, but you have sent me nothing yet. Another item. Our army friends beat us all to pieces on the means of communicating and transportation, and I have to fall back upon them oftener than is pleasant to them — for example I did not dare remove my force from Wassaw and had to get them to tow down a coal ship for me, and by the way this brought up a question of insurance and further compensation to the Collier, please see to this in future charters. I have already asked the Department for a dispatch vessel. I dare not send the Tugs outside. No Commodores Perry nor Barney yet, and what has become of that Light vessel! Coal, Coal too, please tell Lenthall — fortunately the army has long strings of coal vessels and have given us one to-day. Please also tell Mr. Lenthall three of his carpenters have gone home and we want more, a good boat builder among them, sending none but such as are willing to stay. Please hurry on the Forbes and what has become of Watmough! No machinery yet for Unadilla a painful lame bird and an eye sore in the harbor — if her commander a very worthy man is promoted do send a flash of a fellow out to her.

Steedman has sent me word that the Nassau people are going to try Cedar Keys, afraid of the North East gales on this side and so many of their small craft having been run into the breakers the last by the Gem of the Sea at Georgetown. I am dispatching the Florida there though it is on McKean's ground, for she may catch the Gladiator or her cargo distributed, and she will see to the safety of the Lighthouses &c. The Rail Road from Cedar Keys has caused this diversion from this Coast.

We are getting short of officers. The Vandalia is very short.

We had news from Wassaw last night that the Negroes were to have a stampede from Savannah—the Fingal had gone back and unloaded, and that Tattnall's vessel had been burnt by the slaves — that 17000 men were between S^h & Brunswick, intending to set fire to the former city when overpowered. Some of the contraband who bring news in this way are very superior darkies. “William” who went with the Gun boats especially so. I intend to give him fifty dolls for his pilotage and enter him as a Pilot — he knows every foot of the inland waters. These men risk their lives to serve us without the slightest hesitation, indeed like Governor Pickens they seem insensible to fear — make no bargains about their remuneration, leave all that with entire confidence to us. The batteries at Skiddaway, Thunderbolt, and Green island (on the Ogeechee) are pretty fierce and the water shallow — but what I have told you above will fool them all. The contraband report great gloom in Savannah at what they call the apology to England, every one looking to a war. A thousand cavalry in from Virginia and say the rebels have given up Western Virga.

Best regards to Mr. Welles.

Yours faithfully

S. F. Dupont

Hon. G. V. Fox Ass. Sec

Washington

I have nothing from my home since 10" Dec. I believe our Lyceum mail don't come. Savannah bad with scurvy has come in for wood and water and provisions.

SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright, Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 86-90

In The Review Queue: Lincoln’s Spies

Lincoln's Spies:

Their Secret War to Save a Nation

By Douglas Waller

Release Date: August 6, 2019

A major addition to the history of the Civil War, Lincoln’s Spies is a riveting account of the secret battles waged by Union agents to save a nation. Filled with espionage, sabotage, and intrigue, it is also a striking portrait of a shrewd president who valued what his operatives uncovered.

Veteran journalist Douglas Waller, who has written ground-breaking intelligence histories, turns his sights on the shadow war of four secret agents for the North—three men and one woman. From the tense days before Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861 to the surrender at Appomattox four years later, Waller delivers a fast-paced narrative of the heroes—and scoundrels—who informed Lincoln’s generals on the enemy positions for crucial battles and busted up clandestine Rebel networks.

Famed detective Allan Pinkerton mounted a successful covert operation to slip Lincoln through Baltimore before his inauguration to foil an assassination attempt. But he failed as General George McClellan’s spymaster, delivering faulty intelligence reports that overestimated Confederate strength.

George Sharpe, an erudite New York lawyer, succeeded Pinkerton as spymaster for the Union’s Army of the Potomac. Recruiting skilled operatives, some of whom dressed in Rebel uniforms, Sharpe ran highly successful intelligence operations that outpaced anything the enemy could field.

Elizabeth Van Lew, a Virginia heiress who hated slavery and disapproved of secession, was one of Sharpe’s most successful agents. She ran a Union spy ring in Richmond out of her mansion, with dozens of agents feeding her military and political secrets she funneled to General Ulysses S. Grant as his army closed in on the Confederate capital. Van Lew became one of the unsung heroes of the war.

Lafayette Baker was a handsome Union officer with a controversial past, whose agents clashed with Pinkerton’s operatives. The unscrupulous Baker assembled a retinue of disreputable spies, thieves, and prostitutes to root out traitors in Washington, D.C. But he failed at his most important mission: uncovering the threat to Lincoln from John Wilkes Booth and his gang.

Behind these secret operatives was a president, one of our greatest, who was an avid consumer of intelligence and a ruthless aficionado of clandestine warfare, willing to take chances to win the war. Lincoln’s Spies, as Waller vividly depicts in his excellent new book, set the template for the dark arts the CIA would practice in the future.

About the Author

Douglas Waller is a former correspondent for Newsweek and Time, where he covered the CIA, Pentagon, State Department, White House and Congress. He is the author of the bestsellers Wild Bill Donovan, Big Red and The Commandos, as well as critically acclaimed works such as Disciples, the story of four CIA directors who fought for Donovan in World War II, and A Question of Loyalty, a biography of General Billy Mitchell. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

ISBN 978-1501126840, Simon & Schuster, © 2019, Hardcover, 624 pages, Cast of Characters, Timeline of Major Events, Maps, Photographs, Selected Bibliography, End Notes & Index. $34.95.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, April 23, 1864

We have met with some disaster in North Carolina. Am apprehensive the army has been a little delinquent.

General Butler has telegraphed to Fox, who is an old boyhood associate and acquaintance, to come down to Hampton Roads. Wants help. Asks F. to induce the President to go down, but he declines, — wisely, I think. Troops are getting in at Fortress Monroe, and the indications in this vicinity warn us that the strength is being gathered for a conflict.

Sumner called on me to-day. Had just come from Chase; spoke of the finances and currency. I told him I was a hard-money man and could not unlearn old ideas, and had no time to study new theories. He laughed and said that things in these days must conflict with my old opinions. It is evident that our statesmen do not realize the importance nor condition of the money and currency question.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 16-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, April 25, 1864

Reverses in North Carolina are bad at this time. The death of Flusser is most unfortunate. I presume the blame of the disasters will be attributed to the Navy, which, in fact, is merely auxiliary to the army. Letter-writers and partisan editors who are courted and petted by the military find no favor with naval men, and as a consequence the Navy suffers detraction.

Burnside's army corps passed through Washington to-day, whites, blacks, and Indians numbering about 30,000. All the indications foreshadow a mighty conflict and battle in Virginia at an early day.

Fox and Edgar have gone to Fortress Monroe. Calls for naval aid and assistance come up from that quarter.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 17

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, November 8, 1863

Camp White, November 8, 1863.

Dear Uncle: — I received your letter of the 4th last night. Very glad to hear Birch is still contented. The tool-chest would just hit his fancy. He ought to learn the use of tools, but I don't imagine he has any mechanical turn. The only decent thing I could ever make was a bow, and that was rather from a knowledge of the best material than from any skill in whittling. . . .

Stormy weather here. A large part of our forces is out after a fight with a considerable Rebel force in the mountains. We are anxiously waiting the result. Only two companies of my immediate command is [are] out. This probably the last of our campaigning in this quarter for a season.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

S. BlRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 445

John A. Quitman to John F. H. Claiborne, January 8, 1830

Monmouth, Jan. 8th, 1830.

dear Claiborne, — I regret that we did not meet before your departure for Jackson. I had much to confer with you about, and could have done so more satisfactorily than in writing. You ask my opinion npon the constitutional power of the General Assembly to tax and otherwise legislate for the Indians within our limits. I take this view, briefly, of the question. By the laws of nature, no portion of the human race have a right to appropriate to themselves a greater part of the surface of the earth than is necessary, with the aid of agriculture, for their comfortable maintenance. This is the fundamental principle of the right, claimed and exercised by European nations upon the discovery of this continent, to appropriate portions of it to their own use, and a denial of the right would invalidate their and our title. The United States claims federal jurisdiction over the whole territory within its boundaries. The states severally claim municipal jurisdiction over their respective limits, and over all persons within the same, without exception or distinction. By what principle, then, are the Indians exempt from this authority? The Constitution of the United States is silent upon the subject. It only provides that Congress may regulate commerce with the Indian tribes. All other powers are reserved to the states. When not restricted by the federal Constitution, they have absolute powers. Mississippi could only be admitted into the Union upon an equal footing with the other states. The power of Massachusetts and New York to tax their Indians is not questioned. Our state has made no treaty with the Indians, by which she is trammeled in this respect. Where, then, are the restraints upon our sovereign right to tax and legislate for all persons within our limits? Because the United States has treated with the Choctaws for cessions of their soil, are we to consider them independent nations? The federal government may treat with an individual or a company within the limits of a state, but that does not release them from their allegiance to the state, nor from their responsibility to its jurisdiction, nor their obligation to contribute to its support. Good faith and Christian charity require that we should exact nothing more from the Indians than we impose on ourselves. The idea of two municipal authorities in the same territory is absurd and irrational. The truth is, some of our Northern friends appear to have taken our Indians and negroes under their special care, and, if we submit to their assumptions, we shall next find them claiming to regulate all our domestic legislation, and even the guardianship of our wives and children.

The governor has probably laid my militia system before your honorable body. I bestowed much labor upon it. Impress upon the members the necessity of compromising individual opinions a little. We must have an efficient militia. Keep the Supreme Court at Natchez a while longer. I presume you are all absorbed with the elections. I hope you have made Joseph Dunbar speaker. Your declining the written invitation from the Eastern members in his favor, so much your senior and your relative, was right. We regard the election of Robert H. Adams to the U. S. Senate as certain. Are you still resolved to vote for Poindexter? Adams is certainly the choice of this county. I can not be mistaken in this. He is a man of very superior talents, and of many noble qualities. He esteems you highly, and feels mortified that he is not to get your vote. Your friends are anxious about your course, and it would be unkind to conceal from you that, should you vote against a constituent who is so popular and deserving as Adams, for a citizen of another county, who never has been popular here, and whose physical inability is not doubted, there will be a great clamor, and your next election will be bitterly opposed. Construe these remarks as I mean them. They are not intended to dictate to you. Your vote for Poindexter will not change my feelings, though I am warmly for Adams. But, as your friend, it is my duty to apprise you of the state of feeling in Natchez on this subject. In the county you are very strong, and may, probably, sustain yourself, but the city is devoted to Adams, and expects much from him in the Senate.

Let me advise you, likewise, not to appear too often on the floor.

SOURCE: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 102-4

Richard French* to Howell Cobb, September 10, 1848

Mount Sterling, Ky., Septr. 10th 1848.

Dear Sir: As Kentucky is to go for General Taylor in November next, I feel anxious to know what Georgia and the other Southern States, particularly South Carolina and Florida, will do. I think you can decide for Georgia, and give the reason for the hope that is in you for the others. In my quarter of the Union, Kentucky excepted, prospects for Cass and Butler are good.

The slave question in Ky. has taken deeper hold and awakens more concern than usual. Many I think regard the crisis as at the door — but I fear, notwithstanding, the Whigs have their hearts so zealously set upon availability, that even that question will not controul them. How does Mr. Stephens prosper under his motion and vote to lay the compromise Bill on the Table? Knowing Members of Congress abhor long letters, I withhold much that I might say. Congratulating you upon your safe return home and tendering to you my ardent desire for your return to Congress, I remain as ever.

_______________

* Member of Congress from Kentucky, 1835-1837, 1843-1845, and 1847-1849.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 126

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 7, 1863

No news from any quarter, except the continued bombardment of the debris of Fort Sumter, and the killing and wounding of some 10 or 12 men there — but that is not news.

There is a pause, — a sort of holding of the breath of the people, as if some event of note was expected. The prices of food and fuel are far above the purses of all except speculators, and an explosion must happen soon, of some sort. People will not perish for food in the midst of plenty.

The press, a portion rather, praises the President for his carefulness in making a tour of the armies and ports south of us; but as he retained Gen. Bragg in command, how soon the tune would change if Bragg should meet with disaster!

Night before last some of the prisoners on Belle Isle (we have some 13,000 altogether in and near the city) were overheard by the guard to say they must escape immediately, or else it would be too late, as cannon were to be planted around them. Our authorities took the alarm, and increasing the guard, did plant cannon so as to rake them in every direction in the event of their breaking out of their prison bounds. It is suspected that this was a preconcerted affair, as a full division of the enemy has been sent to Newport News, probably to co-operate with the prisoners. Any attempt now must fail, unless, indeed, there should be a large number of Union sympathizers in the city to assist them.

Several weeks ago it was predicted in the Northern papers that Richmond would be taken in some mysterious manner, and that there was a plan for the prisoners of war to seize it by a coup de main, may be probable. But the scheme was impracticable. What may be the condition of the city, and the action of the people a few weeks hence, if relief be not afforded by the government, I am afraid to conjecture. The croakers say five millions of “greenbacks,” and cargoes of provisions, might be more effectual in expelling the Confederate Government and restoring that of the United States than all of Meade's army. And this, too, they allege, when there is abundance in the country. Many seem to place no value on the only money we have in circulation. The grasping farmers refuse to get out their grain, saying they have as much Confederate money as they want, and the government seems determined to permit the perishable tithes to perish rather than allow the famishing people to consume them. Surely, say the croakers, such a policy cannot achieve independence. No, it must be speedily changed, or else worse calamities await us than any we have experienced.

Old Gen. Duff Green, after making many fortunes and losing them, it seems, is to die poor at last, and he is now nearly eighty years old. Last year he made a large contract to furnish the government with iron, his works being in Tennessee, whence he has been driven by the enemy. And now he says the depreciation of the money will make the cost of producing the iron twice as much as he will get for it. And worse, he has bought a large lot of sugar which would have realized a large profit, but the commissary agent has impressed it, and will not pay him cost for it. All he can do is to get a small portion of it back for the consumption of his employees, provided he returns to Tennessee and fulfills his iron contract.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 91-2